Originally published July 8 2005
Diabetes patients must treat feet early in order to avoid amputation
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Because diabetes interferes with the body's ability to heal, even the smallest foot wounds can become infected, spread to the bone and lead to an amputation.
A small sore on a toe may not seem like a major medical threat.
But for the millions of people who have diabetes and other conditions, it can be the first step on a road that leads to the amputation of a foot -- or even a leg.
Published in the June issue of the Annals of Surgery, it's the first-ever large study of how foot-bone infection, called osteomyelitis, is typically treated and how well the different approaches work.
Because diabetes interferes with the body's ability to heal, even the smallest foot wounds can become infected, spread to the bone, and lead to an amputation.
Poor circulation and numb feet, also common in people with diabetes, make the situation worse.
The study is the first large account of the prevalence, treatment characteristics and high cost of treating osteomyelitis, which interferes with walking and sends thousands of people to the hospital each year.
On average, it shows, patients stayed in the hospital for about a week at an average cost of $19,000.
Henke and his colleagues performed the study using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital patient information maintained by the federal Agency on Health Care Research and Quality.
Of the U-M osteomyelitis patients, 80 percent had diabetes, and 30 percent had chronic kidney problems.
Nearly 40 percent also had blockage in the blood vessels of their legs, a condition called peripheral vascular occlusive disease.
Those who had been on antibiotics for a long time before hospitalization were also less likely to keep their limbs, possibly because the non-healing infection spread too far to allow the foot or leg to be saved.
The national data did not include pre-hospital antibiotic use.
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